91–100 of 200 posts
Sigh. I clearly need to spend less time on HN proper, and more on the sites it promotes :).
Based on many of the people I've worked with "well enough to get a job" is a pretty low bar to clear.
these comments are always discouraging to me. i work in a different field (sysadmin), and i've been struggling to get a job programming. am i that bad at programming? or that bad at finding work? i feel like i know the basics of several languages as well as html, css, sql and git. i wrote an IT-ticket system for a healthcare clinic in python consisting of a basic html form and a SQL database backend (i know this isn'…
Recently I've been working with a team of 3 other engineers. 2 Were average if a touch lazy. The third had ~30 years experience on paper. He was without a doubt the most incurious, unproductive, useless programmer I've ever encountered. He must have committed less than 1% of the new code over the last 10 months and most of that was wrong. He was a net drain on team productivity.
However the rest of us delivered and now he gets to put another successful project on his resume and look to a recruiter/HR person like he's a useful, productive guy. Where someone like you who likely has some raw talent and just needs some battle-hardening... you may find getting a foot in the door quite hard.
I don't really know how to solve this.
As someone who has taught himself how to program - badly at times - I applaud these kinds of efforts, but I wonder if they're subverting the actual problem. See, companies - I think - need more technology people. And the pool of technology people is limited. The laws of supply and demand say that limited supply and increased demand will drive up the cost. This is great for individuals, but a losing proposition for co…
I think these courses are the step right before "- Validate that they have the skills to be an apprentice.". If I were going to train someone, I would want it to be someone with the chutzpah to do self directed learning for a period of time.
As someone who has taught himself how to program - badly at times - I applaud these kinds of efforts, but I wonder if they're subverting the actual problem. See, companies - I think - need more technology people. And the pool of technology people is limited. The laws of supply and demand say that limited supply and increased demand will drive up the cost. This is great for individuals, but a losing proposition for co…
you have http://pythonpracticeprojects.com/ for the experience part, not many projects but a good start, especially for python, but it's usable for many other languages
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I also took a look at your contributions - looks a bit spotty! https://github.com/mmcru No activity in the last month? Something I personally would pick up on.
Basing hiring decisions on open source contribution rates contributes to the homogeneity (read: white maleness) of the industry at large. Women especially may not have as much time to contribute, since they are likely getting paid 30% less than their male counterparts and are more likely to be single parents than men. Ashe Dryden has a great breakdown of the issue, as well as some suggested alternative hiring techniq…
I don't know if that's it. The undergrad population in the CS department when I was in college was 11% women (already pretty dismal) but when it came to code-heavy advanced courses like writing an operating system it dropped to 0%.
I would guess they either didn't believe they could do it or they were unwilling to put in the extra work, which in a sense was 'unpaid' since it was not a requirement for graduation. None of these women had children or had to worry about pay discrepancies.
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i do have a github, but i don't think i would call it "good": https://github.com/mmcru?tab=repositories i can definitely improve it, and that is something i have been working on. thanks for the advice though; i really appreciate it. i agree with you that ideally i would be working under some more senior programmers to improve my skills.
I also took a look at your contributions - looks a bit spotty! https://github.com/mmcru No activity in the last month? Something I personally would pick up on.
Good coders spend time outside work keeping up to date on their skills - trying stuff out. This stuff needs to go somewhere. Why not put it in github and show me that you're regularly learning new things?
Also, "pick up" meaning I would notice. I'm not saying I expect to see a 365 day streak or anything, but I would expect to see a fair few contributions from people looking to switch from ops -> dev as they hone their skills.
In short, IMHO people that try and fail over and over until they get it right are much more likely to be good coders, than those with one or two totally pristine repos they committed to years ago.
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these comments are always discouraging to me. i work in a different field (sysadmin), and i've been struggling to get a job programming. am i that bad at programming? or that bad at finding work? i feel like i know the basics of several languages as well as html, css, sql and git. i wrote an IT-ticket system for a healthcare clinic in python consisting of a basic html form and a SQL database backend (i know this isn'…
The problem is that paper experience is not actually a good indicator of anything, but lack of it will keep you out of a job. Recently I've been working with a team of 3 other engineers. 2 Were average if a touch lazy. The third had ~30 years experience on paper. He was without a doubt the most incurious, unproductive, useless programmer I've ever encountered. He must have committed less than 1% of the new code over…
Secondly - to get a start somewhere good I would (if you don't have a tech degree or experience) show some interest in the topic and an ability to be a self-starter. Do a couple of coursera/udacity courses. Stick up a webapp or try to get started with android development or something. Doesn't even have to be exactly aligned with where you want to be, just show some ability, intent and interest.
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Flask. Flask Flask Flask. It's well-documented, in Python, and you can push it to Heroku easy as pie. You can add things like templates (they're built in, and can be really simple) or just concatenate HTML the old-fashioned way. You can program very imperatively and work up to abstractions. It's very friendly. I haven't seen it used as an introductory "language" but I feel like it would work well.
> and the people who get the most upset by that notion are often those who have taught 0 students Does that apply to you?
> but I've taught web dev to over 500+ students in the past 7+ years
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I also took a look at your contributions - looks a bit spotty! https://github.com/mmcru No activity in the last month? Something I personally would pick up on.
you're definitely right. unfortunately i've been busy with a move and learning angular, which was new to me, so i haven't had much new code. i plan on adding more this week. thanks for your advice =]
I would like to offer you some counter-advice: don't work for an employer who bases hiring decisions solely on your github activity or any other open source contributions. These are important metrics but so is your own research, your genuine enthusiasm for the field, and your personality fit.
Say a lawyer wants to become a programmer, and he/she goes through a program at The Flatiron School http://flatironschool.com - and the flat iron school can go out to companies to help get them placed, but instead of trying to get them placed at the same jobs / salaries fit for 4 year university grads or programmers with years of experience, it's into positions like I described above - I just think it'd be a much more honest path on both sides.